'The whole Arab world was dangerous for me; I went to London," an Egyptian Islamist, Yasser Sirri, a man 41 years of age, with three convictions against him in his native land, recently said of his decision to move to England. An opponent of the autocracy of President Hosni Mubarak, Sirri had initially fled to Yemen, then to Sudan. He found refuge in London, where he runs an "Islamic observation center" and carries on with the "holy struggle" against "ungodly" Arab regimes and their supporters in the West.

The Islamists are now within the gates. They fled the fires and the terrors of the Arab-Islamic world but brought ruin with them. This new Islamism mocks the borders of nations and the very idea of nationality. "We may carry their nationalities," a Wahhabi preacher decreed recently, "but we belong to our religion." The geography of Islam has altered. A religion of Afro-Asia has migrated westward. It arrived in Europe, timid at first, carried by migrants glad to escape the failing lands of the Islamic world. Then the migrants were joined, in the 1980s, by preachers and militant men who had fought and lost cruel, bloody wars against the regimes in Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and other despotic lands. These plotters were merciless men; they had been shown no mercy in their native lands. They hated the West but were drawn by its magnetic power. There were liberties in western Europe to be used, and welfare subsidies, and laws against extradition. There were the new technologies--developed by "infidels" but available to the holy warriors. It was easy for the preachers of hate to find foot soldiers in Amsterdam, Antwerp, London, and the suburbs of French cities. There were second-generation children who were in no man's land, on the fault line between the civilization of Islam that they did not know and the civilization of the West to which they did not fully belong.

These lands in the West were bilad al-kufr, lands of infidelity and unbelief. In these new extensions of Islam, London was the most accommodating of cities. It was there that the big Arabic newspapers, denied oxygen by the repressive regimes of Araby, were published. And it was there that men and women from Arab and Islamic lands built new lives, free to live the life of the faith. The terrorism against London is thus a singular act of betrayal.

A fanatic London-based preacher from Syria by the name of Omar Bakri Muhammad tells the tale of this great betrayal. A man of Aleppo, Bakri fled his native Syria in the 1980s and turned up in England in 1996. Since then, he has given his host country nothing but grief and sorrow, calling openly for "holy war" against the West, exhorting young Muslims of Britain to join the insurgency in Iraq. He hailed the death pilots of 9/11 as the "magnificent 19 who changed the world," and he called on Muslims to give the "infidels a 9/11 day after day after day."

"Eurabia." The vulnerability of Europe to the furies of this malignant Islamism is a defining feature of its contemporary life. There are the young men "next door" in Leeds and Madrid, and there are the burning grounds of the Middle East and North Africa hurling their disinherited young people across the Straits of Gibraltar to an aging European continent. We are not in "Eurabia" yet; that great city is still London and not "Londonistan," and no reverse reconquista of the Iberian peninsula by the Moors of North Africa looms on the horizon. Still, liberty is not a suicide pact. We should be done with the search for "explanations" that dignify the hatreds, that attribute them to western deeds and policies. We should see the new hatred dressed in religious garb for what it is: a war against the very order of contemporary life. A man of Moroccan origin, Muhammad Bouyeri, who killed the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, shot him, then slit his throat, and with his knife attached on his body a message of unadorned barbarism. "I knew what I was doing," Bouyeri said. "I slaughtered him."

It would have been nice to think that in the new lands of the West, a more tolerant version of Islam might have taken root. Instead, a neurotic zealotry has made its appearance. In Scotland the leaders of the industrialized world had assembled to discuss disease and poverty. Then a more deadly animus struck, reminding all of us of more atavistic furies still on the loose.

Islam is cult of hate that panders to pedophiles, sodomites, murderers, and liars. Islam is a cult that was originated by a pedophile and false prophet named Mohamed and his followers are a Satanic cult into itself. Christians need to wake up and see that allowing this vermin to infest our countries will only end in death of our religion and ways of life and freedoms.

If the liberals and appeasers would go after the Islamic cultists as they did the KKK, there would be no problem. The Islamics preach the same as the KKK yet they get a free pass.

These men have ruined it for future generations who need to seek asylum. The result of this will be the locking of the door. We are slow to anger, but once angry we can be ruthless in a way that will make the despots look like pussycats. And when it is over, we will go back to planting our gardens and peacefully living our lives.

The Arab world complains that we don't know them, but the truth is, they do not know us.

You were not wrong. I totally defend moderate Muslims, but I hold no truck with radicals. They are two different things. I know that many think there is no such thing, but there is and there are more than people realize.

A lot of innocent people were killed in WWII, but there should be no guilt because there was no other way. Today, there is a way and killing innocents is out of the question.

I believe that Islam can be reformed, and I believe there are intelligent and pious people who are working on that right now and we need to help them because if we don't, then Nagasaki is going to look like childsplay. I don't want to see that and I'm sure you don't either.

I believe that Islam can be reformed, and I believe there are intelligent and pious people who are working on that right

I agree that there are many fine people who are moderate Muslims...the problem is that in the eyes of true Islam, they are nonbelievers...they are apostate.

Loving God is not a Muslim thing...it is a human thing (and maybe even an animal and vegetable thing)...

Problem is...Allah isn't the creator...he isn't God. He is a killer and a liar.

Obviously this is a complicated problem and I will be the first to admit, I don't know what the answer is.

I am a devout Christian and I follow Christ's example (making plenty of mistakes...but still accountable to His example and to Him). I don't want to kill anyone. I think Islam is demonic and its followers can be liberated.

Well, I have worked myself into an honest state of "not knowingness."

I am an open minded and compassionate person...but Islam will kill us all or convert us.

I am an open minded and compassionate person...but Islam will kill us all or convert us.

Allah is the Arabic word for God. There is only one God, the creator of us all. I agree that these Islamists do not worship God, but most Muslims do.

If we are to defeat this enemy, we must be able to identify them. This "kill them all and let God sort them out" stuff is not the answer. Were we to do that, we would never be able to stand in His presence, and that would surely be worse than death.

I am not a turn the other cheek type person, much as I have tried, it's quite beyond me.

Remember, there was a day when Christians hated and persecuted Jews, and there was a day when Protestants and Catholics killed each other, but we have grown beyond that.

Do we have to defeat this thing? You bet your life we do. Do we have to exterminate the vermin who perpetrate it? Yep and we're going to do exactly that. Do we have to sacrifice our souls to save our bodies? Nope, not if we keep our heads. Nothing, I repeat NOTHING is worth disappointing God and that's exactly what we would be doing if we wipe out a bunch of innocent people deliberately.

Is Blair schizoid? No wonder he looks stressed! Troops in Iraq and Islamofascists around the dinner table at home biting the hand that feeds it! That's a dangerous game. Chechen 'freedom fighters' - wouldn't that make Putin rather cranky? How many enemies does Blair want? Does he know who his friends are? (I don't!) Please explain tagline. Sounds very interesting.

Protest Rally and Friday Prayer outside the US Embassy in London 20 May 2005

20 May 2005

The rally is primarily aimed at highlighting the arrogant desecration of the Holy Quran in Guantanamo Bay.

Date: 19-05-05

Re: Protest Rally and Friday Prayer outside the US Embassy in London 20 May 2005

The Islamic Observation Centre in conjunction with other Muslim organisations invite all press to cover a protest rally that is being organised outside the US Embassy in London on 20 May 2005 between 12:30  3:00 P.M. The rally is primarily aimed at highlighting the arrogant desecration of the Holy Quran in Guantanamo Bay.

The Islamic Observation Centre along with Muslims all over the world feel that this highly offensive action has been sanctioned and promoted by the Bush administration as part of a wider effort to intimidate Muslims and show disrespect for the Islamic faith.

Speakers for the rally include Martin Mubanga and Moazzam Begg who are both former Guantanamo detainees as well as Sheikh Abdulmunem Mustafa Halimah.

Friday prayers will be held in Grosvenor Square outside the embassy premises.

I agree...but you must consider that Allah (Al Ilah, the moon god) is antiChrist.

That is where the error is.

I don't know if you are Christian or Jewish (I am both)...but having read the Quran, I can safely say it is a perversion of the Judeo/Christian Word. It is not the fault of Muslims...they have been sold a bill of good...spoilt goods. It isn't Muslims...it is Islam.

Thanks for the ping. Professor Ajami has been explaining this to anyone who would listen since long before 9/11. He is probably the best analyst of the Arab mind alive today (Bernard Lewis' ideas are, I think, a bit dated).

Indeed! It is, to quote Hilaire Belloc, "the Great and Enduring Heresy of Mohammed." You might be interested in reading Belloc's great chapter on Islam from his famous book, "The Great Heresies." It's available online here.

I have to comment on every thread that I see here regarding Islamists/Muslims. Read Paul Sperry's book Infiltration. If you care about this country and if you think the country is being protected from more terrorist acts, this book will wake you up.

In the beginning of the book, Sperry explains that OBL is the model Muslim as he is carrying out EVERYTHING the Koran demands of Muslims. Those who say all the bla, bla, bla we are so used to hearing including the words our President has promised to use (yes, he did to CAIR and other Muslim organizations) are dissembling. They are masters at their lines and the spokesmen for Muslims around the world and especially in our country have learned their lines well.

We believe their words at our peril. Read the book!!!!! PC is going to bite us in the butt big time if we don't wake up! It's what is running the war on terror in Washington, DC......we must not offend the Muslims and our government agencies are more than happy to oblige. For what reason? Who knows?

GG...ping me if you post the Belloc piece. I have friends I want to ping.

The prism through which I view Islam is spiritual (whereas Belloc's was religious, political, and, of course, historical). I reread the article in part this afternoon and would strongly recommend your posting it.

I think the difference between a spiritual view and a religious view is that I see Allah as Satan (if Allah isn't Satan, Satan's got some competition).

I think the difference between a spiritual view and a religious view is that I see Allah as Satan (if Allah isn't Satan, Satan's got some competition).

On the contrary, I think Belloc would agree with you about Allah. He might not have said it that explicitly in the article, but heresy implies the work of the evil one. If Allah is not Satan per se, he is certainly one of his demons. The religion's twisting of truth and pseudo-sexual violence is demonic in nature.

The reason I say that Allah is Satan and not just a demon is that Satan wants to take credit for everything evil (though he sees evil as good).

Yes, and did you notice that Belloc pin-points the root of the heresy as a rejection of the fundamental truth -- in fact, it's the Truth! It rejects the incarnation of Christ. What better way for the enemy to deny our Lord than to reject Jesus' divinity? So, yes, I think at the root of this religion, you can see great evil. Satan can never create anything, he can only corrupt. And Islam is the ultimate corruption of Judeo-Christian truth.

I am of Lebanese Maronite Catholic descent. The Maronites are the Christian descendants of the ancient Phoenicians. We trace our origin to a group of disciples of the hermit St. Maron and by him to the church that St. Peter founded in Antioch. We are the only Christians in the Middle East who refused to be dhimmis. We had to retreat to the remote mountains of Lebanon in order to maintain our faith and our very lives against the Muslim invaders. When the Crusaders arrived in 1099, my ancestors greeted them with open arms! I still get livid every time I hear someone making disparaging comments about the Crusaders. They came because my ancestors begged them to come and help us!

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